South Africa national football team

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South Africa

Nickname(s)

Bafana Bafana

Association

South African
Football Association

Confederation

CAF (Africa)

Head coach

Carlos Alberto Parreira

Captain

Aaron Mokoena

Most caps

Shaun Bartlett (74)

Top scorer

Shaun Bartlett,
Benni McCarthy (28)

Home stadium

First National Bank Stadium

FIFA code

RSA

FIFA ranking

Highest FIFA ranking

16 (August 1996)

Lowest FIFA ranking

109 (August 1993)

Elo ranking





Home colours





Away colours

First international

Netherlands 2 - 1 South Africa

(Amsterdam, Netherlands; 2 November 1924)

Biggest win

Australia 0 - 8 South Africa

(Adelaide, Australia; 17 September 1955)

Biggest defeat

Australia 5 - 1 South Africa

(Newcastle, Australia; 7 June 1947)

Mexico 4 - 0 South Africa

(Los Angeles, USA; 6 October 1993)

USA 4 - 0 South Africa

(Washington, USA; 3 June 2000)

Nigeria 4 - 0 South Africa

(Monastir, Tunisia; 31 January 2004)

World Cup

Appearances

2 (First in 1998)

Best result

Round 1, 1998 and 2002

African Nations Cup

Appearances

6 (First in 1996)

Best result

Winners, 1996

Confederations Cup

Appearances

1 (First in 1997)

Best result

1st round, 1997

The South Africa national football team, or Bafana Bafana (The Boys)[1], is the national team of South Africa and is controlled by the South African Football Association. It returned to the world stage in 1992, after years of being banned from FIFA.

1 History
2 Honours
3 International record
- 3.1 World Cup
- 3.2 African Nations Cup
4 Coaches
5 Famous players
- 5.1 Most capped
- 5.2 Top goalscorers
6 Current Squad
7 External links

From the earliest days of the sport in South Africa until the end of apartheid, football in South Africa was affected by the country's system of racial segregation. The all-white Football Association of South Africa (FASA), was formed in 1892, while the South African Indian Football Association (SAIFA), the South African Bantu Football Association (SABFA) and the South African Coloured Football Association (SACFA) were founded in 1903, 1933 and 1936 respectively.

South Africa were invited to join Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan at the first conference of the Confederation of African Football in Khartoum in 1957 and the South African representative, Fred Fell, sat at the first meeting as a founding member. It soon became clear however that South Africa's constitution prohibited racially mixed teams from competitive sport and so they could only send either an all-black side or an all-white side to the planned 1957 African Cup of Nations. This was unacceptable to the other members of the Confederation and South Africa were disqualified from the competition, however some sources say that they withdrew voluntarily.

At the second CAF conference in 1958 South Africa were formally expelled from CAF. The all-white (FASA) were admitted to FIFA in the same year, but in August of 1960 it was given an ultimatum of one year to fall in line with the non-discriminatory regulations of FIFA. On September 26, 1961 at the annual FIFA conference, the South African association was formally suspended from FIFA. Sir Stanley Rous, president of The Football Association of England and a champion of South Africa's FIFA membership, was elected FIFA President a few days later. Rous was adamant that sport, and FIFA in particular, should not embroil itself in political matters and against fierce opposition he continued to resist attempts to expel South Africa from FIFA. The suspension was lifted in January of 1963 after a visit to South Africa by Rous in order to investigate the state of football in the country.

Rous declared that if the suspension were not lifted, football there would be retarded, possibly to the point of no recovery. The next annual conference of FIFA in October of 1964 took place in Tokyo and was attended by a larger contingent of representatives from African and Asian associations and here the suspension of South Africa's membership was re-imposed. In 1976, after the Soweto uprising, they were formally expelled from FIFA.

In 1991, with the apartheid system beginning to be demolished, a new multiracial South African Football Association was formed. On July 7, 1992, the South African national team played their first game in two decades, beating Cameroon 1-0. South Africa made the 1998 and 2002 World Cups, but failed to get out of the first round each time. They hosted (and won) the 1996 African Nations Cup and will host the 2010 World Cup, the first African nation to do so.

South Africa failed to impress local supporters by not scoring a single goal in the African Nations Cup of 2006. In light of these poor performances it was decided that the hiring of a more experienced manager was essential. Rumours began to fly, prior to the 2006, that England coach Sven-Göran Eriksson was to be the man for the job, with SAFA apparently offering him R30 million to take Bafana-Bafana to glory in 2010. However this has since been denied. More recently the former Brazil coach Carlos Alberto Parreira has accepted the job. After accepting the job, he was awarded R100 million for a four year contract. His term as manager started January 1 2007. South Africa are currently 53rd in the FIFA/Coca Cola World Ranking.

African Cup of Nations: 1

1996

COSAFA Cup: 2

2002, 2007

1930 to 1962 - Did not enter
1966 to 1990 - Banned from FIFA because of Apartheid
1994 - Did not qualify
1998 - Round 1
2002 - Round 1
2006 - Did not qualify
2010 - Qualified automatically as host nation

1957 - Disqualified because of apartheid
1959 to 1992 - Banned from CAF
1994 - Did not qualify
1996 - Champions
1998 - Second place
2000 - Third place
2002 - Quarterfinals
2004 - Round 1
2006 - Round 1
2008 - Qualified

1985-1994 Dieter Widmann
1994-1997 Clive Barker
1998 Jomo Sono
1998 Philippe Troussier
1998-2000 Trott Moloto
2000-2002 Carlos Queiroz
2002 Jomo Sono
2002-2004 Ephraim Mashaba
2004 April Phumo
2004-2005 Stuart Baxter
2005-2006 Ted Dumitru
2006 Pitso Mosimane
2007- Carlos Alberto Parreira

Player	South Africa career	Caps (Goals)
Shaun Bartlett	1995-2005	74 (28)
John Moshoeu	1993-2004	73 (8)
Lucas Radebe	1992-2003	70 (2)
Andre Arendse	1995-2004	67 (0)
Helman Mkhalele	1994-2001	66 (7)
Benni McCarthy	1997-present	66 (29)
Siyabonga Nomvethe	1999-present	64 (14)
Mark Fish	1993-2004	62 (2)
Delron Buckley	1998-present	61 (9)
Aaron Mokoena	1999-present	59 (1)

Player	South Africa career	Goals (Caps)
Benni McCarthy	1997-present	29 (66)
Shaun Bartlett	1995-2005	28 (74)
Phil Masinga	1992-2001	19 (58)
Siyabonga Nomvethe	1999-present	14 (65)
Donald Wilson	1947	11 (9)
Johnny Claessens	1947-1953	9 (10)
Peter Hughes	1955	9 (5)
Mark Williams	1992-1997	9 (23)
Doctor Khumalo	1992-2001	9 (50)
Delron Buckley	1998-present	9 (61)